Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-64432

Auth Bypass in Kubevirt ≤ 1.5.3

Public PoCAuth BypassCrypto Weakness
Published
07 November 2025
Modified
25 November 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0014 4th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-64432 is a medium-severity Improper Authentication (CWE-287) vulnerability in Kubevirt Kubevirt. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Adversary-in-the-Middle (T1557); ranked at the 4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) and IA-3 (Device Identification and Authentication) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A07:2025 Authentication Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

KubeVirt is a virtual machine management add-on for Kubernetes. Versions 1.5.3 and below, and 1.6.0 contained a flawed implementation of the Kubernetes aggregation layer's authentication flow which could enable bypass of RBAC controls. It was discovered that the virt-api component…

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fails to correctly authenticate the client when receiving API requests over mTLS. In particular, it fails to validate the CN (Common Name) field in the received client TLS certificates against the set of allowed values defined in the extension-apiserver-authentication configmap. Failre to validate certain fields in the client TLS certificate may allow an attacker to bypass existing RBAC controls by directly communicating with the aggregated API server, impersonating the Kubernetes API server and its aggregator component. This issue is fixed in versions 1.5.3 and 1.6.1.

CWE(s)
CWE-287CWE-295

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1557 Adversary-in-the-Middle Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to position themselves between two or more networked devices using an adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) technique to support follow-on behaviors such as [Network Sniffing](https://attack.
attack.mitre.org →
T1133 External Remote Services Persistence
Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1557.002 ARP Cache Poisoning Credential Access
Adversaries may poison Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) caches to position themselves between the communication of two or more networked devices.
attack.mitre.org →
T1557.003 DHCP Spoofing Credential Access
Adversaries may redirect network traffic to adversary-owned systems by spoofing Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) traffic and acting as a malicious DHCP server on the victim network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1557.004 Evil Twin Credential Access
Adversaries may host seemingly genuine Wi-Fi access points to deceive users into connecting to malicious networks as a way of supporting follow-on behaviors such as [Network Sniffing](https://attack.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-64434Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2023-26484Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64436Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64433Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64435Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2024-33394Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64324Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64437Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2024-21543Shared CWE-287, CWE-295
CVE-2026-30836Shared CWE-287, CWE-295

Affected Assets

kubevirt
kubevirt
1.6.0 · ≤ 1.5.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 20 hardening rules · 5 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V6.4.4
  • V6.5.4
  • V6.5.5
  • V6.5.7

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

IA-2 Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) good match

Mandates unique identification and authentication of organizational users before access, directly stopping improper authentication.

IA-3 Device Identification and Authentication good match

Requires unique identification and authentication of devices before establishing connections, preventing unauthenticated device claims.

IA-8 Identification and Authentication (Non-organizational Users) good match

Mandates unique identification and authentication of non-organizational users, directly addressing the weakness for external actors.

IA-5 Authenticator Management good match

Manages authenticators with verification and secure distribution, reducing opportunities for improper authentication.

SC-17 Public Key Infrastructure Certificates good match

PKI certificate issuance and acquisition under an approved policy establishes the trusted roots and processes needed for correct validation.

AC-3 Access Enforcement partial match

Enforces access only after approved authorizations, which presupposes correct authentication has occurred.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-03 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-03 directly enforces authentication mechanisms that eliminate most improper-authentication defects, yet CWE-287 spans additional vectors (missing checks, flawed protocols, session handling) that one control does not fully close.

PR.AA-04 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-04 directly enables verification of identity assertions (mostly preventing CWE-287 in that scope) yet leaves many other authentication failure modes unaddressed (only partial prevention overall).

PR.DS-02 mostly match
prevents

Proper certificate validation is a core mechanism for protecting data-in-transit confidentiality and integrity.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices explicitly include implementing correct certificate validation logic.

ID.RA-09 partial match
prevents

Assessing authenticity/integrity of acquired software often relies on code-signing certificate validation.

PR.AA-01 partial match
prevents

PR.AA-01 supplies and governs credentials/tokens that authentication relies on, removing some weak-credential cases, yet leaves verification logic, missing checks, and protocol flaws untouched.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.5 Secure authentication full match
prevents

Requiring authentication methods whose strength matches the sensitivity of the data and mandating multi-factor authentication directly blocks attempts to access resources without proving identity.

A.5.17 Authentication information mostly match
prevents

Verifying user identity before issuing replacement credentials and forcing changes after compromise reduces the likelihood that authentication bypass can be achieved through stolen or weak credentials.

A.5.16 Identity management partial match
prevents

Mandating segregated approval and oversight for non-human identities reduces the chance that weak or orphaned credentials can be exploited for unauthorized authentication.

A.8.21 Security of network services partial match
mitigates

Requiring authentication mechanisms and technical parameters for secure connections ensures that network services verify user identity before granting access, preventing exploitation of missing or weak authentication.

A.8.24 Use of cryptography partial match
prevents

Requiring issuance and validation of public-key certificates under an approved policy reduces the chance that certificates with improper validation will be trusted.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Security requirements specified early and verified through testing drive the consistent implementation of authentication mechanisms, decreasing the likelihood that authentication steps are omitted or incorrectly applied.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (4 rules)
  • V-248574 YUM must be configured to prevent the installation of patches, service packs, device drivers, or OL 8 system components that have not been digitally signed using a certificate that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-295
  • V-248531 OL 8, for PKI-based authentication, must validate certificates by constructing a certification path (which includes status information) to an accepted trust anchor. prevents CWE-295
  • V-248575 OL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-295
RHEL 7 (5 rules)
  • V-204425 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using an empty password. prevents CWE-287
  • V-204442 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
  • V-204447 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components from a repository without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-295
RHEL 8 (3 rules)
  • V-230264 RHEL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components from a repository without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-295
  • V-230265 RHEL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-295
  • V-230492 RHEL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
Ubuntu 22.04 (1 rule)
  • V-260470 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, when booted, must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-287
Ubuntu 24.04 (2 rules)
  • V-270675 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS when booted must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-287
  • V-270714 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS must not allow accounts configured in Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-287

References